LEARNING

MODULE 7
PSY 101
Check this out!
Species Behavior
Birds Builds nests and migrate
Infants Suckle at mother’s breast
Dogs Shake water off of fur
Salmon Swim upstream
Spiders Spin intricate webs
Sea turtle hatchling Move toward the ocean

➢ These are all UNLEARNED behaviors!

Instincts and Reflexes
Reflexes Instincts
✓ are motor or neural reaction to a ✓ Are innate behaviors that are
specific stimulus in the environment triggered by a broader range of
events
✓ Simpler than instincts
✓ More complex patterns of behavior
✓ Involve the activity of specific body
parts and systems ✓ Involve movement of the organism
as a whole
✓ Involve more primitive centers of
CNS ( spinal cord, medulla) ✓ Involve higher brain centers

✓ Knee-jerk, pupil contraction in ✓ Aging process, desire to survive

bright light
 • “a persisting change in human performance
or performance potential . . .
(brought) about as a result of the learner’s
interaction with the environment” (Driscoll,
1994)
Learning is:
• “the relatively permanent change in a
person’s knowledge or behavior due
to experience” (Mayer, 1982)

Learned behavior • “an enduring change in behavior, or in the

involves change and capacity to behave in a given fashion, which
results from practice or other forms of
experience!
experience” (Shuell, 1986)
Forms of Learning
Behavioral Learning (Stimuli – Response)
• Learning is defined by the
outward expression of new
behaviors
• Classical Conditioning

• Focuses solely on observable

behaviors • Operant Conditioning

• A biological basis for learning • Feedback/Reinforcement

(Skinner’s Pigeon Box)

• Learning is context-
independent
IVAN PAVLOV

CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
Classical Conditioning

➢ A process by which we
learn to associate stimuli
and, consequently, to
anticipate events
Higher–order
conditioning

is a procedure in
which the
conditioned stimulus
in one conditioning
experience is paired
with a new neutral
stimulus, creating a
second (often
weaker) conditioned
stimulus.
Extinction
• the decrease in the
conditioned response when
the unconditioned stimulus is
no longer presented with the
conditioned stimulus.
• there is a gradual weakening
and disappearance of the
conditioned response
Spontaneous Recovery
• refers to the return of a
previously extinguished
conditioned response
following a rest period.

• Research has found that with

repeated extinction/recovery
cycles, the conditioned
response tends to be less
intense with each period of
recovery.
• Generalization is the tendency to respond in the same way to
different but similar stimuli.

• Discrimination is the ability to differentiate between a

conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not been paired
with an unconditioned stimulus.

• Habituation occurs when we learn not to respond to a stimulus

that is presented repeatedly without change
 Watson’s “Little Albert” Experiment

• John B. Watson incorporates

elements of classical
conditioning
• He believed the same
principles could be extended
to the conditioning of human
emotions
• His Little Albert experiment
demonstrated how fear can
be conditioned
• This experiment also
demonstrated stimulus
generalization
APPLICATION OF
CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
Classical Conditioning in Humans
As an adaptive
The influence of classical
mechanism, conditioning
conditioning can be seen
helps shield an individual
in responses such as
from harm or prepare them
phobias, disgust, nausea,
for important biological
anger, and sexual arousal.
events

Classical conditioning has

been used as a successful Some therapies associated
form of treatment in with classical conditioning
changing or modifying include aversion therapy,
behaviors, such as systematic desensitization,
substance abuse and and flooding.
smoking.
Classical Conditioning in Everyday Life

• Advertising executives are adept at applying the

principles of associative learning.

• Think about the car commercials you have seen on

television: many of them feature an attractive model.
By associating the model with the car being
advertised, you come to see the car as being
desirable (Cialdini, 2008).

• Men who viewed a car commercial that included an

attractive model later rated the car as being faster,
more appealing, and better designed than did men
who viewed an advertisement for the same car
without the model.
 Operant Conditioning: Learning
What Does What to What

• Edward Thorndike – Law of Effect

• BF Skinner- Reinforcement
 Operant Conditioning

➢ B.f. Skinner developed operant

conditioning as a systematic
study of how behaviors are
strengthened or weakened
according to their consequences
SKINNER’S BOX

➢ Made use of Thorndike’s Law of

effect as a foundation
Operant Conditioning
• Also referred to as instrumental
conditioning
• is a method of learning that
employs rewards and
punishments for behavior.
• Through operant conditioning,
an association is made
between a behavior and a
consequence (whether
negative or positive) for that
behavior.
Types of Behaviors
• Respondent behaviors are those that occur automatically and
reflexively, such as pulling your hand back from a hot stove or
jerking your leg when the doctor taps on your knee.

• Operant behaviors are those under our conscious control. Some

may occur spontaneously and others purposely, but it is the
consequences of these actions that then influence whether or
not they occur again in the future.
• Our actions on the environment and the consequences of that
action make up an important part of the learning process.
Reinforcement in Operant
Conditioning
➢ is any event that strengthens or increases the behavior it
follows

• Positive reinforcers are favorable events or outcomes that are

presented after the behavior. In positive reinforcement situations, a
response or behavior is strengthened by the addition of praise or a
direct reward.

• Negative reinforcers involve the removal of an unfavorable events or

outcomes after the display of a behavior. In these situations, a
response is strengthened by the removal of something considered
unpleasant.
Punishment in Operant Conditioning
• Punishment is the presentation of an adverse event or outcome
that causes a decrease in the behavior it follows.

• Positive punishment presents an unfavorable event or outcome

in order to weaken the response it follows.

• Negative punishment occurs when a favorable event or

outcome is removed after a behavior occurs.
Reinforcement
Schedules
Reinforcement Schedules
• Continuous reinforcement involves delivering a reinforcement every
time a response occurs. Learning tends to occur relatively quickly, yet
the response rate is quite low. Extinction also occurs very quickly once
reinforcement is halted.

• Fixed-ratio schedules are a type of partial reinforcement. Responses

are reinforced only after a specific number of responses have
occurred. This typically leads to a fairly steady response rate.

• Fixed-interval schedules are another form of partial reinforcement.

Reinforcement occurs only after a certain interval of time has elapsed.
Response rates remain fairly steady and start to increase as the
reinforcement time draws near, but slow immediately after the
reinforcement has been delivered.
• Variable-ratio schedules are also a type of partial reinforcement that
involve reinforcing behavior after a varied number of responses. This
leads to both a high response rate and slow extinction rates.

• Variable-interval schedules are the final form of partial reinforcement

Skinner described. This schedule involves delivering reinforcement after a
variable amount of time has elapsed. This also tends to lead to a fast
response rate and slow extinction rate.
Examples of Operant Conditioning

After performing in a community

You train your dog to fetch by
theater play, you receive
offering him praise and a pat on
applause from the audience. This
the head whenever he performs
acts as a positive reinforcer,
the behavior correctly. This is
inspiring you to try out for more
another positive reinforcer.
performance roles.

A professor tells students that if

they have perfect attendance all
semester, then they do not have to
take the final comprehensive
exam. By removing an unpleasant
stimulus (the final test), students
are negatively reinforced to
attend class regularly.
Examples of Operant Conditioning

If you fail to hand in a project A teen girl does not clean up

on time, your boss becomes her room as she was asked, so
angry and berates your her parents take away her
performance in front of your phone for the rest of the day.
co-workers. This acts as a This is an example of a
positive punisher, making it less negative punishment in which
likely that you will finish projects a positive stimulus is taken
late in the future. away
APPLICATION OF
OPERANT
Biofeedback Training
• Biofeedback is a type of therapy that uses sensors attached to your
body to measure key body functions. Biofeedback is intended to help
you learn more about how your body works. This information may help
you to develop better control over certain body functions and address
health concerns.
• This enabled people to learn to control autonomic responses to attain
reinforcement
1. Feedback as Reinforcement
2. Rewarding Desired Response
3. Shaping Behavior
4. Generalization of Skills
Behavior Modification
• Behavior modification is a set of therapies / techniques based on operant
conditioning (Skinner, 1938, 1953).
• The main principle comprises changing environmental events that are related to
a person's behavior.
1. Reinforcement of Desired Behaviors
2. Punishment or Ignoring Undesired Behavior
3. Token Economy
4. Behavior Shaping
• For example, the reinforcement of desired behaviors and ignoring or punishing
undesired ones.
• Examples of behavior modification therapy include token economy and behavior
shaping.
A Point to Ponder!
• Learned helplessness was originally
found in dogs that when
repeatedly unable to escape
shocks in their cages, eventually
have up and stopped trying.

• Learned helplessness has been

documented widely in humans,
including abused and
discouraged children, battered
spouses and prisoners of war
Cognitive Learning
 • Grew in response to Behaviorism
• Knowledge is stored cognitively as
symbols
• Learning is the process of connecting
symbols in a meaningful & memorable
way
Cognitivism
• Studies focused on the mental processes
that facilitate symbol connection
• “Some forms of learning must be
explained as changes in mental
processes rather than as change in
behavior alone”
 Behavioral Learning Cognitive Learning

Focus is on observable events (S-R) only Inferences are made about mental
processes that are not directly observable
Learning consist of associations among
stimuli and responses Learning as information processing; the
learner seeks useful information from stimuli
Main forms of learning are habituation,
classical and operant conditioning
Learning also involves insight, observational
learning, cognitive maps & other complex
Developed as a rebellion against the forms of learning
subjective methods of structuralism and
functionalism; became dominant in the Developed as a rebellion against narrow
20th century perspective of behaviorism; became
dominant at the end of 20th century
Big names: Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson, Big names: Kohler, Tolman, Bandura
Skinner
1. Insight Learning

A form of cognitive learning

originally described by Gestalt
psychologists, in which
problem solving occurs by
means of a sudden
reorganization of perception
➢ Wolfgang Kohler used the
term insight to describe the
learning of his apes.

➢ The sort of learning displayed

by Kohler’s chimps defied
explanation by the
behaviorists… &
demonstrates insight learning

In one experiment, Kohler put a chimpanzee (Sultan) inside a cage and a banana was hung
from the roof of the cage. A box was placed inside the cage. The Sultan try to reach the
banana by jumping but could not succeed. Suddenly, he got an idea and used the box as a
jumping platform by placing it just below the hanging banana.
2. Cognitive Maps: Finding Out What’s
on a Rat’s Mind
• Cognitive Map = a mental image
an organism uses to navigate
through a familiar environment
• Edward Tolman believes that
learning is mental, not purely
behavioral

• Tolman’s studies of cognitive maps

in rats demonstrates that learning
does not always involve changes
in behavior nor does it require
reinforcement
A Point to Ponder!
➢ Latent learning is a learning
that occurs but is not
observable in behavior until
there is a reason to
demonstrate it

➢ Exemplified in Tolman’s
experiments with rats
Social Learning
 1. Observational Learning: Bandura’s Challenge
to Behaviorism

• A form of learning in which new responses are

acquired after watching other’s behavior and the
consequences of their behavior
• Developed by Albert Bandura (1973)
• Challenged the idea that rewards and
punishments act only on the individual receiving
them
• Bandura asserts that most human behavior is
learned through observation, imitation, and
modeling.
➢ Learning by observation
and imitation can
affect our behavior in
new situations – when
we have no personal
experience

➢ Observational learning
is also known as social
• Bandura is famous for his studies of children
learning observing adults who acted aggressively toward
a doll.

✓ More than 100 experimental studies have shown that observing

violence truly does increase the likelihood of violent behavior!
Three Kinds of Models

Live • Demonstrate a behavior in person

Verbal • Does not perform the behavior but

explains or describes the behavior

Symbolic • Demonstrate behaviors in books, movies,

TV shows, video games or internet sources
 STEPS IN THE MODELING PROCESS
➢ Bandura argued that to learn the
behavior, one must pay attention to the
model, remember what the model did
and be motivated to copy the model

Learning Doesn’t Always Lead to a

Vicarious reinforcement – one is Behavioral Change
motivated to copy the reinforced
action of a model

Vicarious punishment – one is less

motivated to copy a model’s
action if this was punished
Vicarious reinforcement – one is motivated to copy the reinforced action
of a model

Vicarious punishment – one is less motivated to copy a model’s action if

this was punished

Learning Doesn’t Always Lead to a

Behavioral Change
MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES
Multiple Intelligences (MI)
• Grew out of Constructivism, framed
around metacognition

• Howard Gardner (1983 to present)

• Proposes that people are born with

eight intelligences

• Enables students to leverage their

strengths and purposefully target
and develop their weaknesses